A history of the Capuchin novitiate in Kilkenny, 1875-77 by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. Referring to the decision to found a novitiate, Fr. Angelus wrote ‘In the month of May 1875 a visitation of the Irish Custody was made by Very Rev. Arsenius, the Provincial of Paris Province. At the conclusion of the visitation he called the Custos [Fr. Patrick O’Reilly OSFC] and his two assistants [Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC and Fr. Aloysius Hennessy OSFC]. They met in our Convent at Dublin on May 25th. At this meeting it was decided to apply to our Superiors General in Rome, for permission to establish a Novitiate for the Irish Custody’. The novitiate was transferred from Kilkenny to Rochestown on 14 Feb. 1877. Fr. Angelus concludes by noting that the ‘account of the Novitiate in Rochestown from 1877 to 1886, when it returned to Kilkenny may be given in another paper’.
List of guardians of the Capuchin Friary, Kilkenny, from 1842-1883 compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. The list includes their dates of office. The file also includes notes by Fr. Angelus re Fr. Edward Tommins OSFC (d. 29 July 1889), Fr. Columbus Maher OSFC (1835-1894) and Fr. Cherubini Mazzini OSFC (1831-1906), guardians from c.1855-68.
Draft resolution forwarded by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC, Vice-President, Father Mathew Hall. Fr. Angelus suggest that the resolution ‘asks two things … first to endorse the work of the Irish Temperance Association and secondly to appeal for further financial support to enable the Hall Committee to extend their temperance propaganda’. The resolution refers to efforts to curtail the sale of alcohol on Sundays. The report notes that ‘we have Sunday drinking not in the interest of the public but in the interest of the publican’.
Manuscript Memoranda re books held in the Kilkenny Friary Library. The notes were probably compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. and Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap. Particular reference is made to annotations, marginalia and inscriptions found on the frontispieces of the volumes. Some of the memoranda are very fragmentary and incomplete. Many of the books referred to in the memoranda are now extant in the Provincial Archives. See CA KK/10 for a listing of some these texts from the Kilkenny Friary Library.
Chronology (probably compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap.) of important events associated with the Capuchin presence in Kilkenny dating from 1643 to 1876. Many of the later entries are references from local newspapers.
A note, possibly by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap., on the building by Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC of the Capuchin Friary Church in Kilkenny in 1847. Fr. Angelus wrote ‘in the account of the celebration of the Feast of St. Francis in 1847 there is no reference to any change in the Friary Church, which was the Old Poor House Chapel … the new Church was begun between October 1847 and December 1848’.
Notebooks and copybooks compiled by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. on the history of the Capuchins in Kilkenny. The books contain fragmentary notes on significant events and friars associated with the Capuchins in Kilkenny including chronologies, transcripts from old texts, foundation documents and local newspapers and biographical details on friars. The copybooks also include notes relating to: • The building of the new Capuchin Friary on Walkin Street (1848) by Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC. • Transcripts of epitaphs on the tombs of Capuchin friars in Kilkenny • Biographical notes on Fr. Fidelis (Peter) O’Rourke OSFC and Fr. J.P. O’Reilly OSFC (including notes re his missionary work in New Zealand) • Notes on the construction of ‘the new organ built by Messrs White & Sons, Dublin, erected in the Church of St. Francis by Rev. P.J. Mulligan OSFC on Sunday, October 28th 1849’.
A history of the Capuchins in Kilkenny by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC. The text covers the period from the arrival of the Order in the city in 1643 to about 1825. The text includes transcripts and extracts from contemporary sources including: • The petition of the Capuchins in Kilkenny to the General Assembly of the Irish Catholic Confederation [c.1645/6]. In Latin. • Reply of the General Assembly of the Irish Catholic Confederation ‘fully admitting the Capuchins to establish themselves as members of the regular clergy in Ireland …’. [c.1645/6]. In Latin. • Letters and petitions from the Franciscans and Dominicans to the Most Rev. David Rothe, Bishop of Ossory stating their opposition to the establishment by the Capuchins of a foundation in Kilkenny. [c.1647]. In Latin. • Letter from Fr. Inocencio de Caltagirone OSFC, Minister General of the Capuchin Order, to Fr. Barnabas Barnewall OSFC, Commissary General, Kilkenny, reporting on the favourable conduct of the Capuchins in Ireland. 22 Apr. 1650. In Latin. • Extracts from The Laffan Papers re the Capuchins in Kilkenny (1689). • Declaration of the state of the Irish Capuchin mission signed by Fr. Cyprian of Armagh. 1 Dec. 1689. • Report on the state of the Diocese of Ossory sent to Propaganda Fide, Rome. 1769.
Copybooks containing ‘extracts of Irish Capuchin interest copied from the files of '"The Kilkenny Journal"' by Fr. Angelus Healy OSFC. First published as “the Lenister Journal”, 24th Jan. 1767, and with present title [from] 17th March 1830’. The volumes contain extracts from articles referring to Fr. Theobald Mathew OSFC and his temperance campaign, Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC and to other members of the Order ministering in the city. The copybooks are organised by date: • 20 Mar. 1844-14 Sept. 1844 • 14 Sept. 1844-27 Nov. 1844 • May 1846-Oct. 1846 • 1 Dec. 1849-Mar. 1850 • Mar. 1851-Feb. 1852 • Mar. 1852-Oct. 1852 • Mar. 1854-Jan. 1861 • Mar. 1856-Dec. 1856
Notes by Fr. Angelus Healy OFM Cap. on Robert Wilkinson, a liberal-Protestant Alderman of Kilkenny who accompanied Fr. Peter Joseph Mulligan OSFC as he passed ‘through Walkin Street on his penny-a-week collection'. Reference is also made to Rev. Peter Roe, Minister of St. Mary’s, who sharply criticised Wilkinson for his ‘espousal of Popery’, and to the history of the Walkin Street Friary in the early to mid-nineteenth century.
